#61 Chasing
Marcion. He is perhaps the greatest heretic of
all times. His following was so
large it threatened the early Catholic Church. He is also the reason The Bible was ever
written, perhaps the man who wrote the Pauline Letters, and many other
enigmatic truths. Also, was he a
true Gnostic or simply a man who wanted to create the first organized form of
Christianity in the world? Astral
Guest—Robert Price, author of ‘Deconstructing Jesus’, ‘The Incredible
Shrinking Son of Man’, and ‘The Pre-Nicene New Testament’. 08/11/2007
#62 Now and
Zen. Time to take a tour to
the East to one of Gnosticism’s distant cousins. We dispel many of its misconceptions and
understand its origins, theology and philosophy that are a radical departure
from mainstream Buddhism and all Eastern faiths. We also parallel the similarities and
differences between Gnosticism and Zen Buddhism, as well as reveal steps to
gain gnosis through the practice of Zazen
(meditation). Astral Guest—Brad Warner, author of ‘Hardcore Zen’ and ‘Sit Down and Shut
Up’. 08/18/2007
#63 Memoirs
of a Gaia. There is a growing,
modern Gnostic thought that equates Sophia with Gaia. It posits that Gnosticism is the direct
descendent of both ancient Shamanism and Mystery Schools that revered Demeter, Ashera, Ishtar and other Magna Maters. We are exposed to Lashean
Gnosticism and its core theology, including its complete divorce from
Christianity and the shocking truth that the Demiurge and Archons might be as
real as you and I. Astral Guest—John Lamb Lash, author of ‘Not in His Image: Gnostic Vision, Sacred Ecology,
and the Future of Belief’.
08/25/2007
#64 There’s Something About Mary Magdalene, Part 2. Now we veer our eyes from Sophia to one
of her incarnations. Despite her
rising popularity and redemption in Western Society, there are still many
misconceptions and unknown facts about the Bride of the Logos. And there is also a great divide between
the Magdalene of the Canonicals and the Apostolic Leader you find in the
Gnostic Scriptures (and the various legends throughout history). A good time to get to know her all over
again, like a romance that won’t end. Astral Guest—Jane Schaberg, author of ‘Mary Magdalene Understood’ and ‘The
Resurrection of Mary Magdalene’. 09/01/2007
#65 Holy Virus. What
if the blood sacrifices for the atonement of sins are not an original Jewish
practice but imposed by outer forces?
What if the Bible, beyond the Gnostic Gospels, actually reveals two
gods—a carnivorous being who demands human and animal souls, and a benign
deity who was the real Father of Jesus and the Jews as well? If this is the case, then the blood
atonement of Jesus is false; and the real reason he came to the world has been
missed by most of mankind. This
truth would undermine all that Christianity has stood for the last two thousand
years. A very
controversial but eye-opening show.
Astral
Guest—Lional Parkinson, author of ‘Holy Virus’. 9/08/2007
#66 Invasion of the Jesus
Snatchers. The deconstruction,
origins and possibilities of Christianity continues unabated with some new yet
solid theories. Could Mary
Magdalene been the author of all the four Gospels? Could
#67 Gnosticism Begins. Perhaps the most debated and enigmatic
topic in Gnosticism is where it began.
Was it a Christian side effect?
Did it originate from Persian or other pagan mysteries? Was it just another Jewish heresy? We delve deep into history and theology
to find out where exactly the Gnostics sprouted out of in mankind’s
imagination. Astral Guest—Birger A. Pearson, author of ‘Ancient Gnosticism: Traditions and
Literature’, ‘Gnosticism, Judaism and Egyptian Christianity’
and one of the original translators of the Nag Hammadi Library. 09/22/2007
#68 All About Sophia: The A to Z of
Sophia, the Wisdom of God and our True Mother. Almost everything, beyond your gnosis,
you ever wanted to know about Hagias Sophia, Barbelo,
Eve, Shekinah, Isis, the
Holy Spirit, among her many avatars.
She was revered before the Gnostics and after they were wiped out in
many sects and Eastern Churches.
Now it’s time she returned to our minds and the mind of God
himself in order to heal the universe.
Astral
Guest—Rev.
Jordan Stratford, author of
‘The Da Vinci Prayer Book’ and ‘Living Gnosis’.
09/29/2007
#69 Mystery Men. Mystery Religions,
Cults and Schools. Since
perhaps mankind began, there have been those who have secretly guarded the
esoteric, primordial meaning of religion: direct contact with the Divine. These clandestine cults flourished in
ancient times, often franchises of greater unknown faiths, offering a journey
into the mystic enigmas of the supernal.
Such Godmen as Dionysus, Osiris, Mithra and
Jesus became the outer symbols of enlightenment and spiritual
resurrection. Eventually many
became standard religions like both Gnosticism and Christianity. And many of these Mystery Religions were
not benign but tools for exploitation for the ignorant masses. Little is known about the Mystery Cults
since their annihilation by Orthodoxy, but we bore deep into archeology,
history and theology to find the true essence of the Mystery Religions. Astral Guest—Acharya S., author of ‘The Christ
Conspiracy’ and ‘Suns of God’. 10/6/2007
#70 Saving Christianity. The Abrahamic
faiths are on a collision course.
Churches are empty across the Western World. Christianity has
become a mile long but an inch thin, faltering under a fast changing society of
science, reason and logic.
Is this the beginning of the end for the world’s largest religion,
or can the old approach of the Gnostics transform all of its tenets into a
liberating force of body, mind and spirit for the 21st Century
human? And perhaps this
transformation might influence the other Abrahamic
faiths before we are plunged into another World War/Crusade. Astral
Guest—
Tom Harpur, author of ‘The Pagan Christ’ and ‘Water Into Wine’. 10/13/2007
#71 Jesus Returns. The Gospel of the Second Coming. Jesus has returned one last time and
this is time he’s both Gnostic and funny. Not only that, Jesus realizes that
he’s just a fiction character in a story just like you and I are fiction
characters in a story written by a Divine Mind or perhaps a Mad God. The question is whether Jesus, with his
sidekicks Peter and Mary Magdalene, can figure out the secrets of the cosmos in
order to redeem humanity before the books closes once and for all on all of
us. After all, ‘life is
foreplay and death is coming’.
Astral Guest— Timothy
Freke, best-selling, co-author of ‘The
Gospel of the Second Coming’, ‘The Jesus Mysteries’,
‘Jesus and the Lost Goddess’ & ‘The Laughing
Jesus’. 10/20/2007
#72 The Way of the Cathars. They were the greatest heresy of the Middle Ages, arguably an offshoot of the ancient Gnostics
that undermined the authority of the religious and political powers of the
time. Their bloody demise is one of
the darkest moments in Christian history that still resonates today. We take a historical and esoteric tour
of the Cathars, their history, theology, tragedy and whether or not they truly
held some of the ancient treasures like the Holy Grail. Astral Guest— Sean Martin, author of ‘The
Cathars’ and ‘The Gnostics’. 11/3/2007
#73 Judas Dynamite. The Real Truth Behind
the Gospel of Judas. Now that the
dust has settled on the National Geographic’s ‘Gospel of
Judas’, there is evidence that there might have been some glaring
mistakes in the first version. New
evidence reveals that the Gnostic Judas is far from an enlightened being but
actually a demonic god who served the Demiurge against the Cosmic Christ. We take a look at the new, controversial
translation and why the initial translators dropped the esoteric ball. Astral Guest—April DeConick, author of ‘The Thirteenth
Apostle’ & ‘Recovering the Original Gospel of Thomas’. 11/10/2007
#74 The Accidental Dualist. Dualism and
Gnosticism. Throughout
history the Gnostics were accused of being dualists: those who saw the universe
and mankind itself split between light and darkness, body and spirit. Were their enemies right, or did
Gnosticism, as usual, buck any theological trend that adds to their uniqueness? We explore Gnostic Dualism through time
and belief, adding yet to the enigma that is the Gnostic worldview. It is also our second of a two part
interview with our guest. Astral
Guest--Sean Martin, author of ‘The Gnostics: The First Christian Heretics’,
‘The Cathars’ and ‘The Knights Templar’. 11/17/2007
#75 Jung’s
Labyrinth. Gnostic Myths Behind
Jung’s Theory of Individuation.
Both CG Jung and his spiritual ancestors, the Gnostics, understood that
deep within the human unconscious existed the keys to enlightenment in the
manifestations of myths, archetypes and alchemical symbols. Mankind has steadily lost these
mechanisms for spiritual healing; but they are ever present and accessible to
the individual daring to take the inner journey of self-knowledge. We adventure into
the eternal psychological side of Gnosticism in order that each one of us may
recover the fundamentals of gnosis that could help the collective unconscious
heal our fractured civilization. Astral Guest--Robert Lloyd, author of ‘The Knowledge that Leads
to Wholeness’. 12/01/2007
#76 Living
Gnosticism. So it’s the Twenty First Century
and you’ve studied Gnosticism.
Now what? How do you apply
Gnosticism to your daily struggles against the Archons? How exactly do you attain gnosis besides
copying the lifestyles of the old heretics? Do the old sacramental ways really work
in an era of dying myths? There
must be a way to incorporate the old and new to create a Gnosticism that fits
this postmodern world of incoming destruction. We answer these questions and more,
pointing to the midnight sun of
#77 Mystic
River. Gnosis and the Mystical Experience. A wise man once wrote
that at the doorway of gnosis all ‘ism’s’, including
Gnosticism, must be left behind.
But what exactly does gnosis entail? Is it the same as having a mystical
experience or are they two different forms of enlightenment vehicles? And is gnosis and mysticism only for a
select few or available to all human beings? Either way, we survey these two forms of
direct experience with the Divine.
And why Orthodoxy has tried for thousands of years to be the sole
gatekeepers of these two muses of the Pleroma. Astral Guest—R.W. Richardson,
author of ‘Mystical Gnosis Event’ & ‘Psychognosis
& the Dignity of Man’. 12/15/2007
#78 Weird Science. Alchemy & the
Alchemists. This ancient
science is also a prodigious tool for self-knowledge and gnosis. We take a voyage into Alchemy’s
origins, evolution and practices.
We also delve into the some of the great Alchemists of history,
including Saint Thomas Aquinas, Paracelsus and CG Jung. And we break it down into a poignant
spiritual practice that is as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago
during the Classic Greek Era. Astral Guest—Tobias Churton, author of ‘Gnostic Philosophy’,
‘The Gnostics’, ‘The Golden Builders’ &
‘Freemasonry’. 12/22/2007
#79 The Jesus Which Project. Was
there a historical Jesus Christ?
The Savior has been born…wait…maybe he never was born. Could all the contradictions and
anachronisms in the Bible, lack of historical data, absent archeological
evidence, Church Father silence and even the Gnostic Scriptures be in reality
pointing to a mythic godman, a patchwork hero with a
thousand theologies? Is there
really any first century proof indicating there was anything close to a fist
century Galilean Rabbi? We take on
this herculean task in a CSI manner and attempt to find if there is a man
behind the legend at all. Astral
Guest—Acharya S., author of ‘Who Was
Jesus: Fingerprints of the Christ’, ‘Suns of God’ &
‘The Christ Conspiracy’. 12/29/2007
#80 The
Last Action Heroes. The Mandaeans. Perhaps
the original Gnostics, the Mandaeans are certainly the only surviving ancient
Gnostic sect. Who are these
mysterious Semites that break so many Gnostic molds including making Jesus and
Sophia the evil villains in the cosmic play? And despite their surviving for
over two thousand years, the reality is that the Second Gulf War has brought
them to the brink of extinction. We
study their culture and theology, as well as present information on how we, as
members of the Esoterica, can help their grim plight in the Middle East. Astral
Guest—Nathaniel Deutsch, author of ‘The
Gnostic Imagination: Gnosticism, Mandaeism, and Merkabah Mysticism’. 01/12/2008